Anthony Trollope - Autobiography of Anthony Trollope
whereas I am still living, and may add to the pile.
The following is a list of the books I have written, with the dates
of publication and the sums I have received for them. The dates
given are the years in which the works were published as a whole,
most of them having appeared before in some serial form.
Names of Works. Date of Publication. Total Sums Received.
The Macdermots of Ballycloran, 1847 (pounds)48 6 9
The Kellys and the O'Kellys, 1848 123 19 5
La Vendee, 1850 20 0 0
The Warden, 1855 727 11 3
Barchester Towers, 1857 /
The Three Clerks, 1858 250 0 0
Doctor Thorne, 1858 400 0 0
The West Indies and the
Spanish Main, 1859 250 0 0
The Bertrams, 1859 400 0 0
Carried forward, (pounds)2219 16 17
Names of Works. Date of Publication. Total Sums Received.
Brought Forward, (pounds)2219 16 17
Castle Richmond, 1860 600 0 0
Framley Parsonage, 1861 1000 0 0
Tales of All
Countries--1st Series, 1861
" " 2d 1863 > 1830 0 0
" " 3d 1870 /
Orley Farm, 1862 3135 0 0
North America, 1862 1250 0 0
Rachel Ray, 1863 1645 0 0
The Small House at Allington, 1864 3000 0 0
Can You Forgive Her? 1864 3525 0 0
Miss Mackenzie, 1865 1300 0 0
The Belton Estate, 1866 1757 0 0
The Claverings, 1867 2800 0 0
The Last Chronicle of Barset, 1867 3000 0 0
Nina Balatka, 1867 450 0 0
Linda Tressel, 1868 450 0 0
Phineas Finn, 1869 3200 0 0
He Knew He Was Right, 1869 3200 0 0
Brown, Jones, and Robinson, 1870 600 0 0
The Vicar of Bullhampton, 1870 2500 0 0
An Editor's Tales, 1870 378 0 0
Caesar (Ancient Classics), 1870 0 0 0
[Footnote: This was given by me as a present to
my friend John Blackwood]
Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite, 1871 750 0 0
Ralph the Heir, 1871 2500 0 0
The Golden Lion of Granpere, 1872 550 0 0
The Eustace Diamonds, 1873 2500 0 0
Australia and New Zealand, 1873 1300 0 0
Phineas Redux, 1874 2500 0 0
Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, 1874 450 0 0
Carry forward, (pounds)48,389 17 5
Names of Works. Date of Publication. Total Sums Received.
Brought forward, (pounds)48,389 17 5
Lady Anna, 1874 1200 0 0
The Way We Live Now, 1875 3000 0 0
The Prime Minister, 1876 2500 0 0
The American Senator, 1877 1800 0 0
Is He Popenjoy? 1878 1600 0 0
South Africa, 1878 850 0 0
John Caldigate, 1879 1800 0 0
Sundries, 7800 0 0
____________
(pounds)68,939 17 5
------------
It will not, I am sure, be thought that, in making my boast as
to the quantity, I have endeavoured to lay claim to any literary
excellence. That, in the writing of books, quantity without quality is
a vice and a misfortune, has been too manifestly settled to leave
a doubt on such a matter. But I do lay claim to whatever merit
should be accorded to me for persevering diligence in my profession.
And I make the claim, not with a view to my own glory, but for
the benefit of those who may read these pages, and when young may
intend to follow the same career. Nulla dies sine linea. Let that
be their motto. And let their work be to them as is his common work
to the common labourer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary.
He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours
at his desk without moving,--as men have sat, or said that they
have sat. More than nine-tenths of my literary work has been done
in the last twenty years, and during twelve of those years I followed
another profession. I have never been a slave to this work, giving
due time, if not more than due time, to the amusements I have loved.
But I have been constant,--and constancy in labour will conquer
all difficulties. Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo.
It may interest some if I state that during the last twenty years
I have made by literature something near (pounds)70,000. As I have said
before in these pages, I look upon the result as comfortable, but
not splendid.
It will not, I trust, be supposed by any reader that I have intended
in this so-called autobiography to give a record of my inner life.
No man ever did so truly,--and no man ever will. Rousseau probably
attempted it, but who doubts but that Rousseau has confessed
in much the thoughts and convictions rather than the facts of his
life? If the rustle of a woman's petticoat has ever stirred my
blood; if a cup of wine has been a joy to me; if I have thought
tobacco at midnight in pleasant company to be one of the elements
of an earthly paradise; if now and again I have somewhat recklessly
fluttered a (pounds)5 note over a card-table;--of what matter is that to
any reader? I have betrayed no woman. Wine has brought me to no
sorrow. It has been the companionship of smoking that I have loved,
rather than the habit. I have never desired to win money, and I
have lost none. To enjoy the excitement of pleasure, but to be free
from its vices and ill effects,--to have the sweet, and leave the
bitter untasted,--that has been my study. The preachers tell us that
this is impossible. It seems to me that hitherto I have succeeded
fairly well. I will not say that I have never scorched a finger,--but
I carry no ugly wounds.
For what remains to me of life I trust for my happiness still
chiefly to my work--hoping that when the power of work be over with
me, God may be pleased to take me from a world in which, according
to my view, there can be no joy; secondly, to the love of those who
love me; and then to my books. That I can read and be happy while
I am reading, is a great blessing. Could I remember, as some men
do, what I read, I should have been able to call myself an educated
man. But that power I have never possessed. Something is always
left,--something dim and inaccurate,--but still something sufficient
to preserve the taste for more. I am inclined to think that it is
so with most readers.
Of late years, putting aside the Latin classics, I have found
my greatest pleasure in our old English dramatists,--not from any
excessive love of their work, which often irritates me by its want
of truth to nature, even while it shames me by its language,--but
from curiosity in searching their plots and examining their character.
If I live a few years longer, I shall, I think, leave in my copies
of these dramatists, down to the close of James I., written criticisms
on every play. No one who has not looked closely into it knows how
many there are.
Now I stretch out my hand, and from the further shore I bid adieu
to all who have cared to read any among the many words that I have
written.
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